April 4 is reserved to Maya Angelou
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
An acclaimed American poet, storyteller, activist, and autobiographer, Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. Angelou has had a broad career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood's first female black director, but is most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She was also an educator and served as the Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
Angelou’s most famous work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), deals with her early years in Long Beach, St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas, where she lived with her brother and paternal grandmother. In one of its most evocative (and controversial) moments, Angelou describes how she was first cuddled then raped by her mother's boyfriend when she was just seven years old. When the man was murdered by her uncles for his crime, Angelou felt responsible, and stopped talking. Angelou remained mute for five years, but developed a love for language. She read black authors like Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, as well as canonical works by William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allan Poe.
When Angelou was twelve and a half, Mrs. Flowers, an educated black woman, finally got her to speak again. Mrs. Flowers, as Angelou recalled in her children’s book Mrs. Flowers: A Moment of Friendship (1986), emphasized the importance of the spoken word, explained the nature of and importance of education, and instilled in her a love of poetry.
Source:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maya-angelou
Bio:
https://www.biography.com/people/maya-angelou-9185388
#history #MayaAngelou #amazingwomen
I love Maya Angelou's writings. Unfortunately the quote you chose isn't by her. The Quote Investigator has an article about it. You're in good company, though. A few years ago the US Post Office issued a stamp celebrating Mother Maya with another misattributed quote. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/06/they-feel/
ReplyDeleteThanks Bodhipaksa .
ReplyDeleteHow others make you feel can have a deeper impact than specific words or actions in a moment of time.
ReplyDeleteI believe many small actions, for instance, showing consideration, attentiveness or kindness over a long period is more powerful than a singular big action. In times of darkness, another person can brighten your day, just by showing they care. Accepting who you are on good days and bad.